Book Review: "How We Deal With Gravity" by Ginger Scott

Ginger Scott has THE distinction of being the FIRST author to make me cry while reading a book. In all of my 45 years, the first time it happened, I was shocked by my tear-soaked face because that just did NOT happen to me while reading a BOOK. Ms. Scott's "How We Deal With Gravity" struck tears again. I guess I shouldn't be shocked.

Avery Abbot is a single mother, left stranded by her husband when he couldn't deal with the diagnosis of their son, Max. Max is autistic.  Avery is a strong, always on the go young woman who devotes every single extra second she has to Max.  She works in her father Ray's bar, she's finishing college and she's raising a special needs son living at home with her father. Needless to say, she doesn't have a lot of extra seconds.

Mason Street is a rock singer who grew up with Avery, practically in their home, and mentored by Avery's father, Ray. Mason is the son Ray never had.  Mason is also washed out.  He's back home from being on the road touring for the last five years because his band was cut from their contract and sent packing because life on the road stopped being about the music and became about the women, the partying, the booze and for one band member, the drugs.  Mason's feeling like a real failure right now.

Much to Avery's chagrin, Mason is invited by Ray to stay at their house just like when Mason was growing up so Mason can get his head together.  And while doing that, Mason goes back to playing at Ray's bar where he's exceptionally popular with the entire community.

And then there's Max. A young autistic boy, Max has his challenges that Avery must deal with not just every day, but every minute of every. single. day. Along with Ray and Avery's best friend Claire, Max is being raised by a small village of family that even include the secondary characters at Ray's bar. When Mason comes along, Max takes to him in a way that only Max really knows but can't express in typical fashion. The child is also a genius in certain areas, like memorizing his planets book or being able to take his iPad and using its Garage Band program to literally write out the music that Mason plays on his guitar.

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This one ripped me apart. Tears of joy and tears of sadness. Mostly joy. I literally had to put the book down at one point to clean myself up.  It's THAT good.  I was moved not only to tears but my heart fluttered, it pounded at times, and I could feel Avery's anxiety when she was nervous.  Written from both Avery and Mason's perspectives, a style I love reading, you couldn't help but relate to just about anything that this entire family goes through for love, for friendship and, for Max.

At one point I felt like Avery was way too hard on herself but, with her father's wisdom, Mason's determination to love Avery and Max, and Mason's desire to learn how to be with Avery and Max (Max is a challenging child), Avery learns that it's okay to stop moving for a minute and just be Avery.

At the same time, Mason has to learn HOW to be with Avery. Not just because he loves her but because she's not your typical single mother.  Learning how to be the lover of a woman and her child who happens to have Autism is a challenge.  A challenge that Mason is determined to rise up and meet. Ms. Scott showed that over and over and it's obvious that she's done more than just the homework on Autism Spectrum Disorders.  Mason makes mistakes as expected and Ms. Scott makes all of them real, bona fide mistakes that any adult might make when first being introduced to a child with Autism.  Ms. Scott makes Mason WORK for Avery's love and more importantly, she makes him work to be the responsible kind that Max needs to have in his life.

Personally, I work as a school nurse in a small, private school where the students are all autistic.  Max jumps off the pages and I could actually see him as one of my own students.  I wanted to hug this kid over and over again even knowing he'd probably hate it or he'd just have no reaction to it.

What Ms. Scott does NOT do is rain down pity all over this novel.  FIVE STAR MOVE!

"How We Deal With Gravity" IS a love story. It's not just the love story of Avery and Max, which is by the way, STEAMY!  But it's also a love story of a mother and a son, a daughter and her father, and it's a love story of a family as a whole.  Even the secondary characters are part of the family love story.

This one is going to get you right in the gut.  You won't be able to NOT feel something.  Your heart will be tugged, your nerves will make you shake, and you will shed tears of both sadness and happiness. Definitely more happy tears I would say.

The ending? Well, I'm not telling. But, if you're going to do an ending, do a BIG one.  And Ms. Scott doesn't disappoint.

To Ms. Scott, you had me at "hello" with your debut novel. You've got me as a reader forever.

*Book provided by the author for an honest review*

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Some "housekeeping" about "How We Deal With Gravity….."

All of the royalties from the novel's first week of sales will go to the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center (www.autismcenter.org), an amazing organization based in Arizona where Ms. Scott has volunteered for many years.

"How We Deal With Gravity" hits Amazon, iBooks, Smashwords, etc. on Tuesday, July 8th!!!!!

Book Review: "Kate Douglas: A 2-Book Bundle Lethal Deception and Lethal Obsession"

     In book one of this bundle, Lethal Deception, we meet Rose DeAngelo. Rose is an insurance agent that insures high-level trucking shipments. Problem is, Rose's shipments keep getting hijacked. Mike Ramsey is an investigator for the Department of Transportation. Mike thinks the hijacks are an inside job and suspects Rose DeAngelo. In fact, she's at the top of his list.

     Through a wild twist of events leading to a car accident, Mike comes to rescue Rose and then figures out he's just recused his prime suspect. But Rose has no idea. After some healing and Rose's need to get from Pittsburgh to California to see her aunt, Mike arranges for Rose to travel with him cross-country while his partner, Kat Malone follows at a distance, so Mike can investigate Rose during the trip.

     Romantic feelings ensue. Mike becomes torn between his job and his feelings for Rose. Rose doesn't understand why Mike's attraction to her is distanced.

     Overall, Lethal Deception is a good read. It takes up about 48% of the two book bundle so it's just slightly shorter than Lethal Obsession. There are books that take me forever to finish and review and there are those I can't put down, give up sleep for, and write the review as soon as I read the last page because I just MUST get my thoughts out.

     With Lethal Deception, it was a moderately quick read, nothing I stayed awake for but I did have to finish both books fairly quickly to get my thoughts down. In hindsight, I should have reviewed this book prior to reading Lethal Obsession and then gone back to make the comparison of the two books afterward as reading both consecutively somewhat forced the comparison while reading Lethal Obsession.

     Because I liked the characters and the ending, I give this one 4.5 stars.

     In book two, Lethal Obsession, we are reintroduced to Kat Malone, Mike Ramsay's Department of Transportation partner. We find her living in California and seeing Riley O'Rourke, whom she fell for at the end of Lethal Deception. That was a minor mention and not a spoiler. We find Kat standing alone and backed away from Riley's graveside service. Riley is now dead. Killed in a car accident. Riley was also married. Kat was the outsider. As Kat gives up and walks away from the service, she bumps into Seamus O'Rourke, Riley's TWIN brother. And boy do they look alike!

     But Kat has some other secrets. NOT SPOILERS. Kat is pregnant with Riley's child which Seamus doesn't believe because of Riley and Seamus's infertility issues. Kat also has someone stalking and trying to kill her. In order to protect Riley's child, if it is Riley's child, Seamus takes Kat in, and hides her through her pregnancy in order to protect her.

     Naturally, things go batshit crazy. And of course there are romantic feelings on both sides going unconfessed because Kat and Seamus are both stubborn.

     Overall, I liked this book about as much as I liked Lethal Deception. I rated Lethal Obsession 3.5 stars and averaged the two out to four stars for the bundle. The reason I took away the stars for the second book is that there is a distinctive scene NOT written IN FULL into the book and I disliked that immensely.

I received an Advanced Reading Copy from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Book Review of "Runner" by Patrick Lee

This book goes from 0-60 starting on page ONE! WHAT A RUSH!

Sam Dryden, retired special forces, is out on a run in the middle of the night and a young girl runs into him on the seaside boardwalk. She's barefoot and terrified, she’s running from a group of heavily armed men with one clear goal—to kill her. She doesn’t know much except her own name, Rachel. Dryden, as it turns out, is also former black ops and has a crazy skill set, one of which is specialization in removing people off of the radar.

Rachel has special powers. Powers that make a whole lot of corporate honchos with power and an entire American government want to hunt her down using every satellite in the Universe available in order to kill her.

Aside from the extraordinary pace at which this book moves, you won't want to put it down. If you're the type that likes to lie in bed and read until you fall asleep, this is NOT the book to try and do that. You WILL fight sleep to keep reading.

The relationship that develops between Sam and Rachel is both father-daughter and to a certain extent, peers, mostly because of Sam's impeccable set of skills and Rachel's special powers. But, their relationship is fantastic and wonderfully written.

I wasn't thrilled with the ending but it's exactly how it NEEDED to end so I deducted no stars.

Definitely a 5-star read!

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.